International SEO: Top-Level Domains, Subdomains & Subdirectories

SEO for international targets has many facets , all of which require a slightly different approach than SEO within a single country. One of the most important items is how you structure your domain name and your URL. To signify the country the website is targeting and/or language the website is in, you can approach this in one of three ways, including: Using a top-level domain name (TLD) Using subdomains Using subdirectories Top-Level Domains (TLDs) A top-level domain is the extension that follows your registered name (e.g., this website's registered name is "searchenginewatch", which makes its TLD ".com"). The most popular and prevalent TLD is ".com", and it is country-agnostic. If you're targeting a specific country, you will want to use that country's TLD, or ccTLD. For instance, you would use .fr for France, .in for India, and so on. A full list of TLDs is available he...